Movie Review: Star Trek

First off, I should say that I think J.J. Abrams has a blimmin' cheek calling his film "Star Trek" as if it is the first one ever. OK, he - or more accurately writers Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman - pulls off a clever trick that means, in some respects, it could be considered to be the first one ever, but that's not the point. Neither do I agree with those who argue the franchise needed "rebooting" - whatever that means. OK Star Trek 10 (Nemesis) was a turkey, but there have been turkeys before. It made its money back. It needn't have ended there, even if none of the cast were up for another, and starting the story again at the beginning doesn't necessarily qualify as a reboot. A retelling, maybe, but even so I think it would have been more respectful to have a marginally longer title.

But I seem to have started off on a negative note which belies the enjoyment I derived from this movie, and its many good points. That aforementioned trick IS clever. It allows Abrams unprecedented freedom from canon, which for a 40+ year franchise is no bad thing. Having to bear in mind every little nuance that went before, from five TV series and ten movies, even if those events are all in the future and all you have to do is avoid doing anything which precludes them from happening, must be like wearing a creative straitjacket for the writers. Even with this freedom, the writers do a remarkable job of staying within the known Star Trek universe, and maintaining the characters as essentially the same people we grew to love all those years ago in TOS. And on top of that, they layer on credible new slants, excitement by the bucketload, and some memorable chunks of dialogue that will stay with me for many years (e.g Captain Pike to Kirk: "Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother's. And yours. I dare you to do better."). The only thing they don't do, and for which the film suffers to some degree, is come up with a basic story that is anything near interesting. For once though, that lack does not wreck the film, which is saved by the humour, the action, the effects and the cast.

Yes, apart from a small handful of misses, the cast are uniformly good, and some are outstanding. Special mention has to go to Karl Urban as Doctor "Bones" McCoy, who for much of the movie acted as though he was channelling DeForest Kelly, so accurate was his mimicry of Bones' famous verbal ticks and body language. "My GOD man!", "Dammit Jim, I'm a Doctor, not a physicist," and "Are you out of your Vulcan mind?" tripped off his tongue as if he'd been saying them all his life, which of course Bones would have been. Nice touches with the origination of his nickname, and his early befriending of Kirk too. The other stand-out for me, and much has already been written about this so I won't dwell on it, was Zachary Quinto as Spock. Uncanny facial resemblance coupled with excellent writing, a more complete backstory than we've ever had before, and a compelling insight into his early life as a total genius made his probably the most powerful character in the entire movie.

Chris Pine has received much praise for his rendition of Kirk, and although it took me a while to warm to him in the role, and I wouldn't go so high and wide with the praise as some, he certainly did manage to bring something new to the role and make it more than a Shatner clone. The only one that didn't really work for me was Simon Pegg as Scotty. Comic relief is great, but I don't remember Scotty being *quite* so much of a loon, and I don't think it sat well. He can certainly say "I'm giving her all she's got, captain," well enough though.

On screen the film looks every penny of the $150m it cost (and which it virtually made back in the first two weekends at the box office, in the US alone). This will definitely be one to buy on Blu-ray. I don't have any time for those who ask why the technology looks so much more advance than it did in TOS. The answer is simple, and has a lot to do with why the final TV series - Enterprise - failed for me. Making a modern show with technology that looks faux-clunky doesn't work. We loved TOS with its clunky hardware because we knew it was the best they could do at the time. Now film makers can do better, so why wouldn't they?

All-in-all then, another Star Trek movie to love, without a doubt one for the collection, and now that it's proved a huge box office hit I'll be amazed if they don't make another. All I would ask is: please, please next time, give us a good story. Remember Wrath of Khan and make it so.